1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the equipment and techniques for simulating the conditions of driving moving vehicles in order to teach trainees to drive such vehicles. The invention is more particularly concerned with applications which relate to driving of automotive vehicles, especially passenger cars and other land vehicles which may be equipped either with wheels or caterpillar tracks.
2. Background Art
Various techniques, which are more or less complex and costly, have already been proposed for simulating a landscape as it passes in front of a student driver who is training in a fixed driving station. An image display screen is employed for this purpose and placed opposite to the driving station. On the screen are displayed sequences of images extracted from previous recordings which can be either motion picture or video recordings of real landscapes as in French patent Application No. 83 20136 filed on Dec. 15, 1983 and published under No. 2 556 866 or synthetic images.
With respect to the known techniques, the invention proposes to obtain a simulation which is closer to the real conditions of car driving as considered in all cases in which the driver must not only control his vehicle according to an environment which he observes in front of him, but must also keep a watch on what is going on behind him by means of rear-view mirrors.
To this end, the invention relates to a method for training drivers of land vehicles, in which a sequence of images is displayed on a screen placed opposite to a driving station for a trainee driver and is caused to move in accordance with control operations initiated from said driving station displayed on the screen both a front main image and at least one rear vision secondary image which is made visible on an associated rear-view mirror provided at the driving station. The main image and secondary image are synthetic images generated by a computer from a data base containing the description of a three-dimensional road circuit.
The invention lends itself particularly well to reproduction of the driver's visual environment by means of the technique of generation of synthetic images. The main images and the secondary images can be generated simultaneously on one and the same screen by a computer from a data base containing the description of a three-dimensional road circuit. Generating all these images on the same screen is particularly advantageous and leads to a simplified or stylized representation of the rear vision images with respect to the front main image. Moreover, it is understood that these secondary images are generated and inserted in the main image from information extracted from the data base so as to correspond to fields of vision behind the driver as is the case with a true motor vehicle driving station whereas the main image is generated from information corresponding to a front field of vision.
The invention also has for its object a device for training in the driving of motor vehicles, comprising at least one display screen opposite to a driving station for a trainee driver, characterized in that said images are generated by a computer from a data base containing the description of a three-dimensional road circuit and that it comprises, in addition to first means for generating a front main image in accordance with control operations of said driving station, at least second means for generating at least a first rear vision secondary image. The rear vision secondary image is inserted in the front image on a first portion of said screen and first optical collects reflects the first secondary image to an associated rear-view mirror provided at the driving station.
In a preferred embodiment of a device of this type, the video monitor screen is integrated in a casing which conceals the lower portion of the screen at the level of secondary images corresponding to at least one lateral rear-view mirror and the casing contains a mirror for reflecting secondary images to the lateral rear-view mirror.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the device comprises in addition two video monitor screens designed to restitute lateral main images on each side of the front main image.